


Warmth

by ayainu



Series: Hideweek2017 [3]
Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Hideweek, Hideweek2017, High School, M/M, Marudad is Hide's legal guardian, Vague relationship, hidekane, transfer!hide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-09
Updated: 2017-06-09
Packaged: 2018-11-12 03:40:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11153478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ayainu/pseuds/ayainu
Summary: Hide was warm and he taught Kaneki what it felt like to be as well.





	Warmth

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry it's late AND unedited I'll get to it at some point.

_“Today again a little snow falls_  
_on sorrow already spoiled_  
_today again even the wind blows_  
_through sorrow already spoiled,”_ *  
The boy recited, his voice quivering like an autumn leaf on a stormy day. Oddly, to Hide’s ears, that feeble voice sounded kind of beautiful, somehow soothing. Hide watched as its owner sat back down and wrapped that ever present scarf tighter around his neck.

“Thank you Kaneki,” Their teacher droned, Hide was sure if he were to draw his eyes away from Kaneki he’d see the mixture of entertainment and pity adults always seemed to get out of messing with helpless kids in their teacher’s eyes.

Kaneki nodded in his seat and the teacher, that apparently had enough of messing with Kaneki for the day, went back to the lesson at hand. Hide didn’t know much, this is his first day in this school, he had enough common sense to understand what’s going on though.

From what Hide could glean out of other students and the way teachers talked, Kaneki was everyone’s favorite weakling. From what he collected he seemed to have a kind of condition that rendered him unable to tolerate the slightest bit of cold. If one were to observe him closely, like Hide was currently doing, it’d be easy to notice how he was constantly trembling. According to other students Kaneki has never been seen without that huge wool scarf wound around his neck, not even in summer. From the instances Hide got to hear him talk, his voice was always quivering and weak.

It was the end of Hide’s first day of school and he was more than a little intrigued. He’d just transferred from the countryside to study high school in the big city. It was his only choice if he wanted to follow his mother’s footsteps and study at Kami University, a university that prestigious won’t accept any country bumpkins

The subway systems were really confusing, but he could probably get the hang of them in a couple of days. “I’m home,” Hide called as he discarded his outdoors shoes for a pair of slippers.

“Welcome home,” called Marude from the kitchen.

“Oh, you know how to cook Marucchi?” Hide placed his bag on the counter and stared across the kitchen at the adult struggling at the oven.

“I don’t, and don’t call me that you brat,” Marude mumbled. Hide could smell the sharp scent of burnt rice and a weird nauseating mixture of spices.

“Sorry, sorry,” Hide brushed off, not sounding the least bit apologetic. “What are you doing here then.”

“I don’t know, your father entrusted you to me and I thought I could try to cook you something, I can’t let you starve here,” Marude sighed. “Are you by any chance interested in the worst curry you’ll ever put in you mouth?”

“I heard sometimes when food reaches a certain level of nastiness it actually starts to taste good,” Hide supplied.

“You never hold anything back do you?” Marude clicked his tongue.

“I am my mother’s son,” Hide grinned.

“You really are, now set the table you little shit,” Marude couldn’t suppress the small smile that tugged at the corners of his lips.

“‘Kay Marucchi,” Hide drawled, already reaching for the cupboard with the plates.

Marude just sighed.

“So how was your first day of school?” Murude said as he filled the plates Hide handed him with slightly – extremely– overcooked rice and a hellish mixture Marude called curry.

“Wow you suck at acting like a parent,” Hide burst out in laughter, Marude flushed. “Thanks though, it went really well. All the kids are really friendly and the teachers are nice. To me that is,” Hide trailed off.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Marude glanced at him quizzically across the table, his spoon was already digging into his plate though.

“Well..” Hide started as he picked at the food on his plate. “There is this kid…”

“This kid?”

“He’s in my class, he’s kind of odd, but everyone in school goes too far making him feel like a freak, even the teachers,” Hide stabbed at a piece of chicken with his fork and took it into his mouth.

“Sounds tough, but that’s high school for you,” Marude shrugged and Hide was quick to shake his head.

“It’s not your textbook case of social outcast, he definitely has something wrong, not that it warrants any of the mistreatment directed at him.” Hide said deliberately.

“You keep saying weird but you never explained exactly how, care to elaborate?” Marude raised one eyebrow.

“Ah well, it’s hard to explain, but from what I got so far he has really low cold tolerance, when I say really low, I mean really low,” Hide tried to explain.

“Really low?”

“Like he wears a heavy wool scarf in the middle of summer kind of low.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah”

“Have you tried talking to him?” Marude supplied through a mouthful of curry.

“I didn’t, other students always avoid him when they’re not being douchebags, I didn’t want to scare him away,” Hide said over the rim of his glass of water.

“Well if you feel that bad for him maybe you should try befriending him?” Marude stood, his now empty plate in his hand.

“It’s not that I feel bad for him, I do think what others are making him go through is beyond wrong and I want it to stop, but it’s not why I’m interested,” Hide bit his lip.

“What is it then?” Marude met his gaze with his own inquisitive one.

“I.. I don’t know,” Hide answered honestly then hurried to change the subject, “I guess it was true after all, that curry didn’t taste half as bad as I thought it would.”

“Shuddap.” Marude either took the bait or decided to drop the subject for the time being, Hide suspected the latter. “I cooked so you get to do the dishes.”

“But Marucchi..!” Hide whined but Marude cut him short.

“No buts, hurry up before it dries and becomes troublesome.”

“You’re the worst,” Hide grumbled.

“Right back at ya punk,” Marude called, already in the hallway.

The next day was the same, relatively uneventful save for the occasional Kaneki mistreatment. Hide tried all day to build enough guts to talk to Kaneki but every time he made a move to go in Kaneki’s direction so much panic filled the other boy’s dull gray orbs that Hide instantly lost his resolve.

It was when he decided to give up and started to head home that it happened. On his way to the station he passed by the riverbank he always liked to admire the beauty of, except this time four figures were blocking the scenery. It looked bad too because he was sure three of them were attacking the fourth smaller one. Taking a closer look Hide recognized the uniform as his school’s, the next thing he noticed was the violent tremors of the fourth figure and the heavy scarf that was being yanked off of it. Hide broke out in a sprint.

Hide asked no questions and went straight for the closest guy he encountered and swung. He quickly whipped around to meet the other one’s stomach with the heel of his shoes, and as the third approached from behind he elbowed him hard enough that he lost his breath for a few seconds. Hide stepped back to block Kaneki from their view.

“What the hell-”

“You’re all an awful bunch, targeting a kid that obviously can’t even fight back, three of you at once too. If it were anyone but me they wouldn’t stand a chance, what a bunch of cowards,” Hide glared so hard he thought his eyes were feeling kind of hot.

“Who the hell are you?”

“I’m my mom’s kid,” Hide said simply. “Now would you scram or do I need to throw you out myself?”

“You’ll pay for this transfer student!”

“Sure, sure,” Hide brushed them off and turned his back on them before they even fully stood.

Kaneki was convulsing harder than he’d ever seen him in the short time he’s been around him, he was on the dirt reaching pitifully for his discarded scarf. Hide’s heart twisted and he was quick to pick it up and hand it to Kaneki who in turn fastened it back around his neck securely. Kaneki’s lips had always been covered by that absurdly huge muffler but from the few seconds Hide could see them they were deep blue.

“Thank you…” Kaneki mumbled quietly, even with his voice that low Hide could tell it was shakier than ever.

“Ah, no problem! Jerks like these should be put in place. I’m Hideyoshi Nagachika, but please just call me Hide!” He grinned at Kaneki widely.

“Kaneki Ken, nice to meet you.” Hide was starting to worry about how much Kaneki’s voice shook.

“You probably already know, but I’m a transfer student here from the countryside and know next to no one here. What I’m trying to get at here is, wanna be friends?” Hide was an absolute wreck, but he still extended a hand towards Kaneki.

“Friends?” Kaneki stared long and hard at the hand extended towards him, it was when Hide made to retract it that he finally extended his own.

“Yeah!” Hide’s lips were pulled over his teeth as his smile widened.

“Ok…ay..” Kaneki trailed off, his eyes wide and confused as he stared at their connected hands.

“Are you okay Kaneki?” Hide cocked his head to the side, puzzled.

“Warm..” Kaneki’s eyes welled up with tears and Hide was starting to freak out.

“Kaneki what’s wrong? Did I do something wrong? I’m sorry!” Hide was talking faster than he ever knew he could. When he tried to retract his hand in his haze of panic Kaneki tightened his grip around it.

“N-No.. Hide I.. warm.. I can feel it, seeping into my skin… Hide I can-” Kaneki was full on sobbing at that point and Hide opened his arms to offer a hug.

Kaneki scrambled into Hide’s arms and it left Hide dazed, how fast everything was going. Hide let Kaneki get all his waterworks out on his poor shirt. Kaneki was extremely cold in his arms, the kind of cold his mother described the skin of a corpse with.

When Kaneki finally stopped crying Hide noticed he was considerably warmer and the tremors were all but gone. He could feel the coolness of Kaneki’s lips seeping through his shirt from where they were squished against his shoulder.

“I couldn’t feel warmth,” Kaneki murmured against the shirt, his words shapes against Hide’s skin.

Hide said nothing but nodded for Kaneki to continue.

“I was born this was, not from my aunt or uncle, or anyone at school, or neighbors, not even animals. Everything I touched was cold, no trace of the warmth I used to feel from my mother.” Kaneki made no sense at all but Hide let him go on.

“My mother, when she passed away I was never able to feel warmth again. My world has always been freezing ever since, until.. until just now.” Kaneki pried himself away from Hide’s shoulder to peer at him with wonder filled eyes.

“Why? What makes me different?”

“I don’t know..”

“Am I your personal heater now?”

“I-I’m sorry! It’s just-”

“No no, it’s fine I was just kidding. This is kinda nice anyways. Plus, what are friends for?”

Kaneki smiled and Hide’s heart tightened in a way it never did before. “Thank you Hide.”

“Don’t mention it, I guess now you’re stuck with me, huh?” Hide tried to sound nonchalant but he was sure his excitement bled through his voice.

“Being close to you feels really nice!”

“Then I guess it is where I’ll stay,” Hide winked and KanekI looked flustered but his cheeks didn’t tint pink, Hide guessed that’s expected when his lips were only barely the same color as his skin now.

“We should go home,” Kaneki started after a while.

“We should,” Hide replied but made no effort to move.

“But I want to talk more with you,” Kaneki murmured.

“Didn’t I just promise to always be here? We have all the time in the world,” Hide assured, even when he himself didn’t want to leave.

“You’re right, it’s just, this is so hard to believe for me. I feel like the second I let go of you none of this will be real,” Kaneki sighed but stood up.

“How about this then,” Hide started and removed his headphones from around his neck, placing them on Kaneki’s slender one beneath the muffler. “Like this you have a part of me with you at all times!”

“It’s warm..” Kaneki smiled up at Hide and the poor blonde was about ready to melt of the spot.

Hide smiled back with triple the luster.

“See you!” Hide waved at him.

“See you!” Kaneki’s hands were cradling the headphones with the gentlest of looks on his face.

Hide couldn’t wait to get home and tell Marude, he couldn’t wait for tomorrow to come so he can meet Kaneki again. Their futures were near and now intertwined, he was now bound by nothing but his own will to be close Kaneki at all times he could be.

Something good was waiting for them and Hide just knew it.

_*For Tainted Sorrow, Nakahara Chuuya._


End file.
